Ethiopia

The struggle

Ethiopia was never colonised. It defeated an Italian invasion at Adwa in 1896 — the decisive African victory over a European army — and remained sovereign until Fascist Italy occupied it in 1936. Five years of patriot guerrilla resistance, the Arbegnoch, ended with Emperor Haile Selassie's return to Addis Ababa on 5 May 1941. Adwa made Ethiopia the emblem of African independence worldwide.

One date, a longer story: Ethiopia marks liberation, not independence — it had never lost sovereignty before 1936.

Key people

• Menelik II

  1844–1913

  Emperor who commanded the victory at Adwa

• Taytu Betul

  1851–1918

  Empress and strategist at Adwa

• Haile Selassie

  1892–1975

  Emperor; took Ethiopia's case to the League of Nations

• Abebe Aregai

  1903–1960

  Leading commander of the patriot resistance